Current respiratory ventilation systems to treat mild to moderate respiratory failure in humans, commonly of hypoxemic origin, include nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (nCPAP) and humidified high flow therapy. nCPAP is the most widely used system because it can be administered non-invasively and can effectively increase patients functional residual capacity (FRC), allowing for air sacs to open and resulting in improved oxygenation. Diseases that can be treated with such a system include mild to moderate infant respiratory distress syndrome, atelectasis, pneumonia, pulmonary edema, congestive heart failure and many others in patients ranging from premature babies to adults. The nCPAP system, however, presents many problems, including the labor intensiveness of applying the head gear to the patient, and the bulky and cumbersome head gear that can lead to stress, claustrophobia and discomfort to patients. Physical conditions such as nasal irritation, pressure sores and skin breakdown are also a common complication.
The humidified high flow therapy system has the advantage of improved comfort as well as reduced risk of skin breakdown because of the smaller size of the head gear (i.e., nasal cannula). However, the humidified high flow therapy presents problems with uncontrolled pressurized environment, the risk of pressure build-up in the patient's respiratory cavity, and the inability of this therapy to control and set a CPAP. As a result of the known problems, clinicians are reluctant to apply this system due to the unregulated airway pressure (i.e., CPAP).
There exists a need to provide a small, lightweight and non-intrusive headgear with the ability to regulate pressure in the patient's respiratory cavity.